What Is Up With Politics Today?

Third Party Watch is a website I just found (if this is something you’ve known about and haven’t shared with me tsk tsk) The website is a blog but it is updated multiple times a day with news stories that focus only on third parties.  Pretty nifty, right?  The best part is that it has been up and running for three years now and it doesn’t look as though it will be going anywhere in the near future.  Pretty nifty resource even if it does talk about all the alternative parties and not just about the Libertarians.

Some of my favorite posts are Stop the Smearing because I would like for everyone to stop attacking each other politically and a post about Third Party Candidates for Congress where I was surprised by how many third party candidates are on various state ballots. 

They want to get rid of a lot of the federal taxes (including income) and use taiffs.

They think a lot of government spending on things such as health care, education, and welfare are unconstitutional.

Wants the government to have a noninterventionist foreign policy (they don’t bother us we don’t bother them kind of approach).  Bye-bye NAFTA, WTO, and UN.

More restrictions on immigration…you have to be useful or you can’t come over.

Against euthanasia, abortion, same-sex marriage, pornography, government support of gambling, BUT the death penalty is ok.

Wants to repeal amendments sixteen and seventeen.

Chuck Baldwin

If you want specific information about Chuck you can find his website here.  If you aren’t feeling that interested I’ll give you the bits about him that I found the most interesting.

He’s a Baptist minister in Pensacola, Florida.  (I find this interesting because I love Pensacola)

He’s married with three children.

He doesn’t hold any political office.

He has his on radio show and is an “accomplished author”.

His video (on the site mentioned above) points out that McCain and Obama are actually a lot alike.  Hadn’t really thought about but he is right.  Obama isn’t a good ol’ boy in the political sense the way McCain is yet simply because he isn’t as old.  BUT if you look at his history…he’s been playing this political game most of his adult life and has been climbing the political ladder the entire time.  He’s just managed to do it faster than most. 

Do I really want him to win?  Is he the candidate I’ll vote for?  No.  But it is nice to have a choice, isn’t it?  What do you know about him and/or the Constitution Party?  Are you a fan?  If you are I’d love to hear more about why you think he’d be the best choice for our country.  If you have a specific reason for hating him, I’d like to hear about that too (just because I can’t imagine him being influential enough to have made  anyone actually hate him yet)

I’m of two minds when it comes to offshore drilling.  The part of me that lives in Florida and loves the beautiful coastline thinks, nah, why take the risk?  The part of me that is paying close to $4.00 a gallon on gas says drill anywhere you want if it will make driving more affordable.  I’ve read items on both sides of the argument and I am beginning to think it can be done in a way that is mostly safe.  It is certainly safer and more ecologically friendly than it was ten or twenty years ago.  I think it would be a great way to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and it would be a good way to get the oil we need while we find new, sustainable, and ecologically friendly fuel sources.  Even Obama is getting behind careful offshore drilling, you can read more about that here.  If even the lead democrat is getting behind it I have to think it is inevitable.

What do you think about the prospect of offshore drilling?  Do you think it is a good temporary solution (obviously we need a new fuel source for the long term)?

A friend of mine sent me a link to receive a free Obama button and suggested I share it with all of you.  I thought that was a great idea but didn’t want anyone to get the idea that I was supporting Obama (mind you, I still haven’t decided).  So in order to be fair I went out and found free stuff for the Republicans and Libertarians too.  I looked for free Green Party goodies but they aren’t showing the freebie love, or if they are I couldn’t find it.  If you know of any cool political freebies throw the link in the comment section to share the love!  I hope you like at least one of the freebies I (and my sweet friend) found. 

I’m feeling kind of melancholy for some reason today.  At the moment I’m feeling a bit anti-establishment as well.  While I love a good debate (which the New Yorker has given me) at times it can also depress me.  It bothers me when I think that the entire world (or my corner of it) doesn’t want to (or can’t I guess) open their eyes.  There is more to my mood than just this bit of fluffy media hype but I don’t want to bore you.  Instead I’m making a little protest song post.  This music tends to fit my mood, especially when I’m especially disgusted with whatever (in this case the media and the majority of responders to the cover of the New Yorker *not my lovely friends here at Today, y’all have been great even when you disagree with me*).  I hope you enjoy it.

A bit off topic, anyone else crush on Trent? Back on topic, does the tedium of politics ever get you down?

Wow!  So not technically political news but so freaking cool!  Ok so what is this Left VS Right? Well it is a new search engine powered by Live Search.  Now before any of you go on a hate mission about Microsoft you have to go check it out.  There is a red/republican/right chick and a blue/democratic/left dude.  You type your search term in and they comment on it.  Especially funny when you do political terms AND there is an ongoing ticker at the bottom with newsy stuff.  If you leave Britt (right) and Patrick(left) to their own devices they do various little things that are pretty funny.  Somewhat addictive, at least for me.  Check it out here.

After you check it out come back and tell me what your favorite search made them say.  I started with democrat and republican

I am an Eclectic Bird and my interests in politics are as eclectic as my interests in just about everything else.  I will be talking with you primarily about what is going on in U.S. politics but from time to time I will also include World Politics as they grab my attention.  As this is an election year much of my time will center around the candidates and what they have to say but I will also tell you about the political songs, movies, websites and the like that I find and enjoy.  I definitely have views on issues that  are my own but I can’t say that I have found that those views align especially well with any particular party.  Therefore, this blog will be nonpartisan BUT it will definitely be biased by what I believe.  What do I believe?  To find that out you’ll have to keep reading my blog.

While you are waiting for that information why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?  What is your political allegiance?  What issues do you want to see moved to the forefront of the national discussion?